ISLAMABAD, March 28: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has approved establishment of bio-pharmaceutics laboratory at Peshawar University. The project, approved by the HEC Departmental Development Working Party, would provide laboratory facilities to the 80-90 Pharm D students every year. It will also provide MPhil and PhD level training to students in bio-pharmaceutics and clinical pharmacy.

The laboratory would develop linkages with pharmaceutical industries in drug development, bio-equivalence studies, formulation development and analysis of degraded products and other contaminants.

Once the laboratory is functional it will establish national and international collaboration with other eminent institutes and academic activities apart from providing strength to the industry in the form of skilled human resource.

The development of the technical facilities will be used to evaluate in-vivo and in-vitro studies of pharmacokinetics of molecules, drug to drug reaction, drug metabolism, toxicology, therapeutic drug monitoring, etc.

It will also lead to strong linkages with practical involvement of students and faculty in applied research. Development of the laboratory will permit the university to undertake the analysis and designing of the pharmacokinetics evaluation drugs, metabolism and possible interactions in various body matrixes.

The project will also open new era for the academia-industry liaison in the field of pharmaceuticals. Bio-pharmaceutics is one of the major subjects in the Pharm-D curriculum and the establishment of this laboratory will provide strong support to the clinical side of the discipline.